About what? I haven't spoken to the family in three years. After what Daniel did, after everything with Marcus and Victor..." She shook her head. "I'm done with all of that.""You were never done with it." James's voice was quiet, defeated. "None of us were. We were all just playing parts in someone else's game."Emma sat slowly, her pulse hammering. "What do you mean?"James looked around the terminal, then leaned forward. "Your marriage to Marcus. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't love at first sight or fate or any of the romantic nonsense you told yourself."The words hit like a physical blow. "What?""It was arranged. Orchestrated. We introduced you at that charity gala specifically so you'd meet him." James's hands shook as he spoke. "We needed someone close to Marcus Chen. Someone who could watch him, report on him, keep him distracted from his real heritage."Emma's world tilted. The charity gala where she'd first seen Marcus across the room, looking lost in his cheap tuxedo.

Time slowed to a crawl as Robert's finger lifted from the dead man's switch.Emma felt her System explode into overdrive, but not with combat protocols. Something deeper awakened, something that made her gasp and stagger backward.[EMERGENCY EVOLUTION ACTIVATED] [EMPATHIC OVERRIDE UNLOCKED] [WARNING: ABILITY UNTESTED - SEVERE RISK TO HOST]"Emma!" Marcus lunged forward, but he was too far away.The switch would complete its circuit in two seconds. Three hundred innocent people would die. The terminal would become a crater.Emma didn't think. She reached out with her newly awakened ability, not toward Robert's body but toward his mind.The connection hit her like lightning.Abandonment. Rage. A ten-year-old boy watching his father leave forever. The smell of his mother's perfume as she cried herself to sleep. The hunger when there wasn't enough food. The shame of wearing the same clothes to school for weeks.Then salvation. A kind Chinese businessman who saw potential in a broken str

Emma lay still on the medical bed, listening to the steady beep of monitoring equipment. The neural inhibitors made her feel like her abilities were wrapped in cotton, but they were still there. Muffled, but functional.Through the reinforced door, she could sense two guards. One felt bored, checking his phone every few minutes. The other carried a weight of guilt so heavy it made Emma's chest ache in sympathy.What are you guilty about? she wondered.Marcus stirred beside her, his breathing changing from the deep rhythm of sedation to something lighter. His eyes fluttered open, unfocused at first, then sharp with awareness."Emma?" His voice came out rough and dry."I'm here." She kept her voice low. "Don't move too much. They're monitoring us."Marcus tested his restraints carefully, his enhanced strength pushing against the metal cuffs. They held, but barely."Where are we?""Sarah Voss's private facility. She's the real puppet master behind everything." Emma quickly filled him i

Emma's newly freed abilities swept through the facility like wildfire. Every mind within a hundred yards suddenly felt exposed to her empathic touch.Seventeen guards. Three technicians. Sarah's two children. And Sarah herself, somewhere deeper in the building.Each person's emotional signature hit Emma like a physical force. Fear. Guilt. Desperation. And underneath it all, a foundation of bone-deep exhaustion. These people weren't loyal to Sarah through love or respect. They were trapped, just like David."Emma." Marcus's voice cut through her empathic overload. "Stay focused. Don't let it consume you."She nodded, pulling her abilities back to manageable levels. The System was feeding her tactical information now, showing her exactly how to use each person's emotional weaknesses against them.David was staring at her in shock. "Your eyes. They're glowing.""The neural inhibitors are broken," Emma said, testing her restraints again. This time, with her enhanced strength returned, th

Sarah's composure cracked for just a moment. "How did you...""I can feel your pain. All of it. The night he called you to his study. How you thought he was going to promote you to junior partner. Instead, he...""Enough!" Sarah's mask slipped completely, revealing the wounded nineteen-year-old girl still trapped inside. "You don't know anything about what he did!"But Emma's empathic abilities were painting a clearer picture with each emotional spike. "He didn't rape you. He rejected you. You offered yourself to him, thinking it would secure your position in the company, and he turned you down."Sarah's face went white with rage. "That's not...""He was gentle about it. Kind. He told you that you were brilliant and capable, that you didn't need to trade your body for advancement. He even offered to pay for you to finish your MBA.""Shut up!""But you'd already planned your whole future around being Edward Chen's lover, his business partner, his chosen heir. When he rejected you, it s